Gay marriage, but thankfully, I don't roll in many circles that support the ban. Pretty much everyone I personally know - conservative or liberal - supports gay marriage.

Just about anything the FCC and RIAA do these days can get me ranting fairly quickly. And there are a few local issues that get me fired up as well - but I tend to give those a wide birth for a few reasons.

I'll fly off the handle with just about anything when faced with someone stupid enough. Doubly so when drunk.

Recently, though, it's been the subject of one of the instructors in the fire academy who is both a lieutenant at my company and a follower of the theory of cruel tutelage. He's a dick, to be sure, but when I hear other recruits going off about him and what they'd like to do to him, I get a little huffy since he's A: from my company, and B: they don't have the guts to go say so to his face.

"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Frown and the world laughs at you."-Me.

Now that I live in the US, my hot button issue has been defending Canada.

Yes, we have cable TV and newspapers.Yes, we have our own money and drive on the right side of the road.No, we don't have polar bears in Mountie uniforms patrolling the streets...although that would be pretty cool.

Abortion. I can't understand how you can decide that there is a time when you CAN kill an innocent human being and then, magically, then is a time when you cannot.

We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.

�That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy� - Swift

Originally posted by AWArulzAbortion. I can't understand how you can decide that there is a time when you CAN kill an innocent human being and then, magically, then is a time when you cannot.

Perhaps the reason it's a "hot-button" issue for you is because you seem to think the opposite argument to yours is, "It's OK to kill people," when in reality the argument is, "a fetus isn't a person." Unless, of course, you can point me to a person who defends abortion by saying, as you put it, "there is a time when you CAN kill an innocent human being."

There's certainly a LOT that will set me off, but if I had to try and capture it all in one category, I'd say nothing irritates me more than faulty, strawman-based logic used to back up a point. Dismissing an argument (or endorsing it) for reasons other than a legitimate analysis of its merits.

I cannot stand it when some companies have an unfair balance on the airwaves. Take ROGERS here in Canada: in Toronto, they have THREE TV stations, and at least TWO radio stations. Couple that with that they have a monopoly on cable TV, and other assets....it bothers me to no end.

I would have to say smoking and the smoker's rights crowd. The people who passionately fight for their right to smoke in the car with small children.The tired old excuse, "Alcohol and Fast Food are just as bad. Go after them" sets me off. I talk to the editorial page, yelling "Stupid comparison! Not the same thing. I can't taste the Big Mac or glass of wine of the person sitting behind me."

I also have a low tolerance for bullying among kids, which is why working at a middle school may not have been the best career path for me to follow.The things they say with adults sitting right there makes me wonder what kinds of things they when nobody's around.

Oh, I am sorry - my new hot button issue is people who respond to one question posts when the rules are that you only post the answer to the question.

We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.

�That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy� - Swift

No issue ticks me off, just when people decide THEIR opinion on an issue is better than mine and I should "convert" to their opinion. Whether I beleive in gay rights, abortion, military presence in _________ or not does not mean it is your right to inflict YOUR beleifs on me. It is called an opinion. Everyone is entitled to one.

Originally posted by AWArulzOh, I am sorry - my new hot button issue is people who respond to one question posts when the rules are that you only post the answer to the question.

I have to concur, but only because my PREVIOUS hot button issue - starting a thread in "One Question..." which wasn't a question - looks to have been resolved with DrDirt coming around on his thread titles. ;-)

Originally posted by AWArulzOh, I am sorry - my new hot button issue is people who respond to one question posts when the rules are that you only post the answer to the question.

I have to concur, but only because my PREVIOUS hot button issue - starting a thread in "One Question..." which wasn't a question - looks to have been resolved with DrDirt coming around on his thread titles. ;-)